Graffiti found on Wash. memorials

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The National Park Service says graffiti has been found at four memorials in Washington.

U.S. Park Police officials said Tuesday that messages written in permanent marker were discovered over the holiday weekend on the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial and the D.C. War Memorial.

A spokeswoman said the message written on the Washington Monument references President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Officials said the similarities in what’s written and the handwriting lead them to believe the same person is responsible.

The agency said in a news release that the National Mall and Memorial Parks monument preservation crew is removing the graffiti using a mild, gel-type architectural paint stripper that is safe for historic stone.

Cross defaced

Vandals defaced a giant cross overlooking a Connecticut city from the site of the former Holy Land theme park.

Several green pentagrams and a large letter T were spray-painted near the bottom of the 52-foot-tall cross in Waterbury during the past several days.

The vandalism was visible from Interstate 84.

Mayor Neil M. O’Leary bought the 17-acre property atop Pine Hill with a partner in 2013. He calls the vandalism troubling.

The cross was placed on the site in 2013 and is illuminated at night by color-changing LED lights. It replaced a larger cross that stood on the site since 1956 as the centerpiece of the former biblical theme park.

Holy Land once attracted thousands of visitors a year. It closed in 1984.

Police are looking for the vandals. No arrests have been made.